1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a new system for aiding or navigating a person related to medical care such as a medical doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a medical office worker and so on, to make a medical care schedule and a medical care record. The present invention also relates to a compute: readable program storage device and a computer data signal embodiment in a carrier wave, which allow a computer to function as the aiding system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a medical doctor performs an observation or examination for the patient. Then, at first the medical doctor makes up a medical care schedule in his or her mind as for a test, a medical service, an arrangement for hospitalization, a medical operation, an administration of medicine etc., after that in accordance with the observation and the diagnosis Then, for example, the medical doctor may make such a schedule by writing, on a so-called “instruction table” sheet for exclusive use, the medical care schedule or plan for the patient such as the schedule and content of the test and the medication, the schedule and content of the medical operation, the schedule and content of the post-operation treatment or examination and so on. As for a medical care record for the medical care actions performed on the basis of the schedule, recording by using an electric medical record is becoming widespread in place of a conventional medical record of a paper or sheet.
Recently, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2706645 (Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. Hei 9-185651) corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,197 and Japanese Patent No. 2815346 (Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. Hei 10-214302) corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,018 which have been applied by the present inventor, it is also possible to make such a medical care schedule and a record on a medical care schedule table, in which medical care actions of various types for one patient are arranged in first rows for each type of the medical care actions and in second rows orthogonal to the first rows for each date, displayed on a computer display. Namely, it is possible to make such a medical care schedule and a record on a medical care schedule table which is displayed by executing a program called as a “care map” or on a medical care schedule table which is generally called as a “critical pass”, (hereinbelow this kind of medical care schedule table is simply referred to as a “care map” as the occasion demands), by filling each item in the care map in accordance with the diagnosis or observation of the medical doctor More concretely, the medical care schedule maker or recorder such as a medical care doctor sets medical care items related to the pertinent patient as the items to constitute the ordinate (first row) of the table and also sets an appropriate term assigned to the date constituting the abscissa (second row) of the table in which the medical care actions belonging to the set items will be performed, in accordance with the diagnosis or observation, so that the frames of the care map are constructed. Further, he or she inputs the medical care actions to be performed into each frame of the care map at the date and item corresponding thereto (hereinbelow, each frame of the table is called as a “cell” as the occasion demands). Then, after the scheduled medical care action is performed, a performance or result data remains as a confirmed data ill each cell of the care map in place of the schedule data. Namely, in tis care map, the schedule data is shown with the performance or result record data.
According to the above mentioned care map, since the hospital concerned personnel such as the medical doctor, the nurse, the pharmacist etc., who actually performs the medical care schedule, share the performance or result record data and the schedule data, it is possible to make the medical care schedule with little loss and perform the medical care schedule while appropriately adjusting or amending it in cooperation with each other e.g., inputting and changing the data associated with each cell (or each item) in the care map at each of the terminals with reference to required result data as the occasion demand.
Especially, according to the research of the prevent inventors, it is ideal, for making an appropriate medical care schedule for each patient, to deal with a performance or result record data on one patient on the care map not only by a unit of one hospitalization, but also by an unified unit of a plurality of hospitalizations or a plurality of attendances to a hospital or hospitals, and further by a long term such as a decade and ultimately by a patient's life, if they are possible, because the clinical history of the patient can be referred to upon making the schedule. In this case, it is more ideal to deal with the result data on the same patient on the same care map not only at one health care facility such as one hospital, but also at a plurality of health care facilities to which the same patient has attended.
However, according to the above mentioned care map, under the actual scene of the recent sophisticated and complicated medical care, inputted electronic data i.e., medical information is quite various and accumulated data related to the same care map have basically increased.
Especially, as one patient's term which should be treated with the above mentioned care map becomes long, the accumulated data related to the care map become vast. Also, as the health care facilities for one patient which should be treated with the same care map increase in number, the accumulated data related to the same care map become vast.
As a result, in referring to the medical care information on one patient on the above mentioned care map, it becomes extremely difficult for the doctor or the like to find out the exact information on a certain disease to which the doctor or the like would like to refer under each individual concrete circumstance, for example, under the circumstance that a medical care schedule for a patient who has myocardial infarction is being made, even by using a recent scrolling technique or the like. For example, if the care map lists the various information such as medical information recorded in hospitalizing with fracture, medical information on an operation for empyema, diagnosis information on gastric ulcer, a result of visual acuity test, and so on, it becomes extremely difficult to find out the most important medical information on the myocardial infarction on the care map. Moreover, for example, even if the doctor or the like would like to find what the first liver trouble is lie, in making a medical care schedule of a liver trouble for middle-aged, it would be extremely difficult to hunt out the decades-old record on the care map in other medical information on dozens of and hundreds of hospital visits and hospitalizations.
Like the above mentioned, it adversely becomes difficult to achieve the care map's basic object which is to refer to all kinds of medical care information on the care map efficiently, if too much medical information is store. This makes it difficult to deal with the medical care information on one patient as long term as possible and to deal with the information which covers a plurality of medical care facilities on the same care map.